This description made broad generalizations and paints with an extremely large brush. In this chapter Webber makes the extreme, false statement that Bob Jones University had a rule which forbid any student to even “pray” for Billy Graham.Ĭhapter two describes the nature of the younger evangelicals. He also gives a poor representation of a literal hermeneutic of Scripture. Webber goes to great lengths to emphasize that fundamentalism is based upon the Baconian system of thought and thus Common Sense philosophy. Webber says that the younger evangelicals look to the early pre-constinian church to find a principle for the church today.Ĭhapter one seeks to categorize and define the three movements introduced above. Humorously, Webber classifies the Emergent movement as a “countercultural” movement (p.18).

This cultural change is the basis of the Young Evangelical movement, yet Webber notes that this is not within the “scope” of the book (p.17). The Younger Evangelical is defined as anyone who deals thoughtfully with the shift from 20 th to 21st-century culture. Those phases are termed as: traditional (fundamentalist/new evangelical), pragmatic (church growth movement), and the younger evangelicals (emergent church). He then situates the younger evangelicals into three phases of church history from 1950 to present. He also dogmatically claims without any support that because of the postmodern culture of the 21 st century there needs to be a new form or paradigm of the church (p.15). Webber introduces the work by defining what it means to be an “evangelical.” He defines the term as it is expressed in the four uses: biblically, theologically, historically, and culturally. This is exactly what Robert Webber demonstrates as he presents the evangelical leadership for the 21 st century. Throughout church history, one can see a pendulum of thought swinging from one extreme to another and never truly finding a balance.

Robert webber humboldt st 2017